ESG at ELEMENT

Our strategy for a sustainable future of the insurance industry

Climate protection, social cohesion, corporate responsibility. Not just empty buzzwords, but debates that have become central aspects of ethical corporate governance in recent years. CSR ("Corporate Social Responsibility") or, more broadly, ESG ("Environmental Social Governance") have become even more important due to the corona pandemic. How do we want to live and work together in the future? Two questions concerning us privately as well as professionally.

We at ELEMENT deal with the future of the insurance industry every day. More important than ever, however, is that there is no future in insurance unless we think equally about the future of our planet. That’s why over the last few months we have been taking a hard look at how we can not only take environmental aspects into account but also proactively promote social issues and ethical corporate governance. Evaluating our corporate social responsibility is an important part of the future of ELEMENT and our industry in general. Therefore, we have set up a sustainability committee that acts as an advisory board and discusses, evaluates, and consistently drives environmental, social, and corporate governance principles.

Taking the first step: our cooperation with Plan A

For the E (Environment) in ESG, the environmental aspect, we asked ourselves how ELEMENT can achieve CO2 neutrality. Our sustainability committee first used internal surveys to determine

• how many employees work from home,
• how many days they work from home,
• how large the offices are,

considering factors such as electricity, heating, business trips and commuting.

To further assess our environmental footprint, we have partnered with Plan A, whose software helps companies monitor and reduce their emissions while improving their ESG performance. Together we determined our CO2 footprint and found projects to offset the footprint as a first step. Plan A has put together a tailor-made decarbonization strategy for ELEMENT to offset the identified footprint and to reduce it in the coming year through far-reaching measures.

Decarbonization: ELEMENT supports these sustainability projects

Together with Plan A we have determined three projects that ELEMENT now supports to take responsibility for environmental change.

The first project is the Finnish company Ekovilla, which provides carbon-negative cellulose fibre (CFI) insulation made from renewable natural resources. One ton of CFI from Ekovilla removes 1.11 tons of CO2 equivalent from the atmosphere. The second project in our strategy is the Safe Community Water Supply project in Rwanda, which restores and repairs existing boreholes. By eliminating the need to boil water over inefficient fires fuelled by wood, the project not only eliminates health risks but also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation of surrounding forests where the firewood comes from. To optimize carbon sequestration and preserve biodiversity we selected Ecotree, a sustainable forestry company. The project in the Langonnet forest (Brittany, France) will be proven to sequester 26,000 tons of tCO2e over its entire life cycle and will also soon be PEFC and FSC certified.

Internal sustainability committee drafts ESG strategies for ELEMENT

But we don't stop at the E in ESG. A study by the international network "CECP Global Exchange" shows that in Germany, in addition to the "E(environmental)",  the "S(ocial)" is becoming increasingly important in corporate practices. The social dimension of the ESG concept has long ceased to be reduced to occupational safety, diversity, or social commitment. In recent years, a global understanding has grown, that social activities must be linked to core business and corporate communications - internally and externally.

We have set up the internal sustainability committee so that ELEMENT can implement this as successfully and holistically as possible. The committee serves as an advisory body, providing ideas and actions for further ESG projects in monthly meetings. The committee is responsible for driving implementation across the different teams, monitoring the impact of actions taken and communicating ESG-related information and achievements. We want to go further than just reducing our environmental footprint. The S and the G, Social and Governance, will also be addressed and developed further by our committee in the coming months. Our goal is to work as sustainably and progressively as possible – with a clearly formulated attitude. We do not only want to help shape the future of the insurance industry, but also to drive it forward in a sustainable manner and set new standards in the insurance industry.

Interested in ELEMENT’s ESG journey? Check our social channels to follow our progress.